WHAT is wrong with my serger?

[caedmyn]

OK, I bought it used and the elderly lady I bought it from couldn't remember how to operate it, so maybe the thing is just seriously messed up...and I've never used a serger before...but I can't make it work. I've got the manual and I'm sure I'm threading it right, but it seems like the thread tension is messed up. It'll feed smoothly for 2-3 turns of the spool and then it feels like it catches on something. If I pull it through sometimes the thread will break and other times it'll start going smoothly again for another 2-3 turns until it catches again. The tension adjustment knob doesn't move when this happens. It does this on all of the spool holders (or whatever they're called) that I've got threaded (3 out of 5). WHY is it doing this? I'm using some spools of serger thread that came with the machine, they're just cheap serger thread. One was still in the wrapper until I opened it today to use it. HELP!!!

[orangefoot]

I have a Janome MyLock434D and I had this problem occur randomly too - the feeling it was catching on something then breaking. I finally gave in and turned to the manual again.

Do you have a manual for yours? I had missed this instruction:To thread the upper looper turn the balance wheel towards you until the upper looper comes to the middle point of its travel, and unhook the thread of the lower looper from the upper looper. Thread the upper looper.

Doing this has solved my broken thread problems. Might it help you too?

[courtenay_e]

Oh, sergers can be really tricky if they're not threaded EXacTly correctly. I threatened to throw mine out a window while on the phone with the instructor at our local sewing machine shop. She gave me a little tip that saved my sanity. They tell you with my machine to thread the loopers in a specific order, and they tell you this for a reason. To thread it properly, you have to put one thread BEHIND the other. It doesn't LOOK any different on the schematic...but once she told me the trick? My machine WORKS. Wonder of wonders. Before that, it was just like what you described. Completely NOT evident by the "simple" looking diagram, there is a simple trick in threading it.

I would perhaps call around and see if any body in your area sells that model, or call the company and ask if there are any tricks. They should actually be able to send you to at the very least a repair person in your area, and THEY should be able to help you figure it out. I highly doubt it is a problem with the machine. In my limited experience, it's probably threading issues, or at the very least a tension issue (it changes depending on the stretch in the fabric).

Good luck!

[inthezoo]

I would try looking into the threading order first then the tension for the threads. Does your manual give you some clue as to where to start for the tensions? I bought a book on amazon that looks to be pretty basic on use of sergers. The Complete Serger Handbook by Chris James. I read on a serger forum that the book is a must have but I admit I have not read it yet. Something I forget is to make sure the thread starts out in those first rollers tight enough, they really have to be jammed in there or they seem to catch then break.

I'm on to my second serger now, the first one I bought used, a Babylock and my new one, which I really love and only just used last night for the first time is a Viking. Both machines have the same threading order, I don't know enough to tell you if it is standard or just coincidence. The second thread from the right first, then the farthest right and you have both loopers, then the right needle followed by the left. If you can find a vacuum and sewing shop to service your machine they will return it to you with it adjusted to run and that could give you a working starting point. They test them before sending them out.

Best of luck!

[caedmyn]

Originally Posted by inthezoo

The second thread from the right first, then the farthest right and you have both loopers, then the right needle followed by the left.

That sounds like the order the manual recommended--mine has three spools across the back for the needles and the two for the loopers are on the right side. The stitch I was going to do used the two loopers and the right needles, so I threaded the first looper and then the second looper and then the right needle.

The manual does list the recommended tensions but I don't think it's just a tension problem as I put them way looser than it recommended to see if that helped and it didn't.

I'm not sure it's worth getting it serviced, either, as I've read it costs close to $100 to get it serviced and I only paid $40 for the serger, so I don't really want to put much money into it in case it is just plain broken. I'm going to have DH look at it, he's pretty good with mechanical things and maybe he can figure out what's wrong with it.

[courtenay_e]

Good luck! My husband is an engineer, and said, "Oh, cummon! How hard can it be?!" and then fought with it for a couple of hours and gave up in disgust. I say, if he can't get it working, that you should call somebody who knows THAT machine and ask if there is a trick.